Vande Bharat Express Hits Motorcycle Hours After It Was Pelted With Stones

A stone was hurled at the Vande Bharat Express, the third such incident in two months involving India’s fastest train.

Press Trust of India

Hindustan Times via Getty Images

NEW DELHI — The Vande Bharat Express hit a motorcycle near Allahabad on its third commercial run on Wednesday, the railways said, adding that no one was injured in the incident.

The incident occurred hours after stones were hurled at the train near Tundla in Uttar Pradesh in the morning.

The incident took place near Phaphamau, around 42 km from Allahabad.

“The train hit a motorcycle, which was abandoned by its owner on the tracks as he saw the train approaching while illegally trespassing on the tracks. While the vehicle has completely been damaged, the Vande Bharat Express suffered none. No one was injured and the train will run as per schedule,” Northern Railway Spokesperson Deepak Kumar said.

The train, made indigenously at a cost of around Rs 97 crore, has been plagued by issues since its trial runs commenced in November last year.

Earlier, during a trial run between Delhi and Agra in December last year, stones were hurled at the train as well. A similar incident occurred earlier that month too.

After the first incident of stone throwing, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) had started campaigns across the areas where such cases were reported.

Investigation into several incidents of the sort in Delhi established that most of the stone-pelters were young children. Since then, the RPF has distributed toys, sweets, colour pencils and other such things to them to stop them from hurling stones at trains.